By Not Known
How shall it be that despite the innumerous sins that we have committed in thoughts, words, and actions in all areas of our lives, Scripture says to us: “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11). How does this act of believing in Christ remove our shame?
This act of believing is to be understood primarily in relational terms. It is a sure knowledge of the Father’s love towards us in Christ, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, causing us to love and trust Him unreservedly, yielding to Christ as our Lord, Saviour, Head, and Husband. Through it, we are brought into union with Christ, the fountainhead of God’s boundless grace and mercy. Through this union, we draw upon the inexhaustible supply of grace from His infinite fullness.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:14,16).
What is this grace that is ascribed to Him, which we have all also received from Him?
The fullness of this grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of the deity in the bodily form (Colossians 2:9), in the incarnated God-man, appointed and anointed by God, fit and completely suitable for the mediatory office of reconciling us back to God. It is the personal presence and glory of the Lord Jesus that the disciples had witnessed and beheld, manifested through the fullness of the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit in Him. For to Him, the Spirit is given without measure. He is full of grace and truth.
This grace is also the grace that we received from Christ out of the love of the Father. This love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is an effectual love. It has the power to transform our hearts, to change us into the likeness of Christ so that we become partakers of His divine nature.
We shall not be ashamed because we shall be clothed with His righteousness. “For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace”, as we are transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).
This is the blessedness of being in Christ, the hope and joy of abiding in Him, to the delight and glory of God the Father.